Conformity Studies

Asch (1951) - Compliance

Procedure

-123 male students in groups of 7-9 in a lab experiment of 'visual perception'
- Experimenter showed 2 cards (one with standard line, one with comparison lines)
- In turn, participants called out the matching line which was obvious
- 18 trials per group, 12/18 were critical trials
- Naive/real participant was seated second to last so were exposed to everyones wrong answers before giving own

Asch (1951) - Compliance

- Lacks ecological validity - strangers in groups - unnatural - artificial setting - cannot be valid - lab experiment - not true to real life situations- Gender bias - all male sample - unrepresentative -difficult to generalise to women who may be more or less conformist - reduces reliablity and validity - less scientific
- Deceived to nature of task - fully informed consent was not given - this was done as it was hard to study conformity if participants knew the nature of the experiment - some participants felt stressed - participants were debriefed and given the right to withdraw

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Zimbardo (1971) - Identification

Procedure

- 24 male students - take part in lab experiment after being checked for psychological stability
- Randomly allocated to role of guard or prisoner
- Prisoners were arrested, searched and given a number identity
- Guards were given uniforms, authoritative equipment and dark glasses
- All put into prison environment and the guards were told to keep the prisoners under control without using physical violence
- Experiment called off after 6 days instead of 2 weeks

Findings

- Prisoners rebelled due to dehumanisation immediately and therefore the punishments by guards escalated
- Punishments included deprivation of sleep, humiliation and being locked in a cupboard
- Prisoners became quickly depressed and passive showing serious signs of stress

Conclusion

-Ordinary, stable individuals can abuse power and behave violently if placed in certain situations

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Zimbardo (1971) - Identification

Weaknesses

- High ethical issues - participants couldn't give fully informed consent as experiment was unpredictable and uncontrolled - deceived - not given right to withdraw - psychological harm and distress

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Clark (1998/99) - Internalisation 1

Procedure

- 220 psychology students given a summary of the plot for 12 angry men
- Asked to play the role of the jurors in a simulation of a realistic situation
- Some booklets gave evidence FOR the defendant's guilt only, other contained counter-arguments

Findings

- Minority juror only led people to change their mind when they could provide counter-evidence to the charge. If they did not provide evidence, people did not move from majority position

Conclusion

- The information given by minority is important

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Clark (1998/99) - Internalisation 2

Procedure

- Student participants given a summary of the jury's discussion in the film
- Contained counter arguments presented by the minority juror
- Clark then presented different scenarios to the participants showing varying number of defectors (people changing opinion to majority position)
- Participants used a 9 point scale to judge whether he was guilty or not

Findings

- Participants were influenced by the number of defectors that moved to the not guilty position
- When 4 or 7 jurors had defected position to the minority, participants were more likely to do so
- 7 had no more influence than 4, so 4 defectors is the ceiling of influence

Crutchfield, Cinirella and Green - Proximity

- In face to face communication - conformity was higher in collectivist than individualistic
- In computer mediated communication - no cultural differences

Conclusion

- People who are unable to see eachother are less likely to conform to invisible majority

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Perrin and Spencer - Time affecting Conformity

Procedure

- Replicated Asch's 1950 study in 1981 with different males

Findings

- Conformity in 1981 is lower than 1950s America
- Conformity still takes place when people are amongst those with power
- High conformity when young West Indians were placed in groups with the majority of white confederates due to a time of racial inequality

Conclusion

- Conformity is much lower in the Western world today than middle of last century

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Tajfel and Turner - Social Identity

Procedure

- Teenage boys (14/15) from Bristol
- Placed randomly into 2 groups - played a game where you can allocate points, trade for cash

Findings

- The boys chose to allocate more points to their own group even when they could gain more rewards by allocating equal points

Conclusion

- We favour our own group and discriminate against other groups

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Hogg and Turner - Social Identity

Procedure

- Asked ppts for private response to conformity task similar to Asch
- Private response remove the need of conformity for normative reasons

Findings

- People only conform when the majority consisted of members of their own group rather than an out group